1. Field of the Invention
The present invention applies to a tele-evaluation system, particularly for the centralized remote evaluation of information, particularly medical patient information and measurement data, based on one-time use articles (disposables) that are characterized with data and/or can gather measurement data.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Problems and new opportunities arise for tele-medical treatment management and treatment monitoring via networks, such as for medical purposes, but also for non-medical purposes. A significant problem in such networks is data security. The danger exists that the treatment data may be read by persons gaining unauthorized access to the network which, at a minimum, is an invasion of the privacy of a patient. The consequences can be even worse if the diagnosis data and treatment data are deliberately changed by persons with criminal intent. The risk of accidental mismatching of physician and patient addresses also must be reduced in such a tele-medical treatment management. If these problems are adequately revised, a tele-medical treatment management provides the possibility of acquiring reliable evidence about the effect of methods and medicine prescriptions as a result of the centralized collection of the treatment data. Moreover, a geographical spread of illnesses can be more quickly recognized by means of a tele-medical treatment management.
It is obvious to encode the data during transmission, but the problem is that many codes can be very easily cracked. There are indeed numerous suggestions of how secure keys (e.g. 128 bit) can be used and how these can be administered, in an expeditious manner, in security centers that also guarantee the authenticity of the sender. Additionally, solutions are known in banking systems, wherein the authentication is realized by the forwarding of registered transaction numbers, which must be processed in sequence. Common factors for all of these proposals are that they are expensive and inconvenient for those involved.
An object of the present invention is to provide a tele-evaluation system of the type initially described wherein secure data transmission from the patient or the physician to an evaluation station is possible without using long complicated keys and wherein a number of uses of the collected patient data is possible.
This object is inventively achieved in a tele-evaluation system wherein disposable items used in the system to collect data carry an individual encoding key in order to encode the data in a patient station that is connected via a data line or a data network to a storage station and/or evaluation reception station. A disposable-ID, that is introduced into or stored on the disposable item and can be automatically collected (entered) at the patient station, is simultaneously transmitted unencoded together with the encoded data and an identifier for the patient station. The reception station has a data link to the manufacturer of the disposable item in order to query the individual key via the disposable-ID for decoding of the data.
The patient station thus can be located at the patient""s home, at the physician""s office, in a clinic, at an ambulatory care service, at an emergency facility or at any other location, at which the patient uses it. The manufacturer of the disposable items (or alternatively an authorized distributor of the disposable items)xe2x80x94announces the individual encoding keys of each disposable item (that can be identified by its disposable ID) via a secure (certified) data line to the evaluation station, so that this key can decode the data transmitted by the patient station using the individual keys and can continue processing.
This further processing can transpire, for example, by the evaluation-reception station sending back diagnoses or such to the patient station via the data line or the data network, using the respectively changing individual keys of the disposable item after evaluating the disposable item data.
The key can be kept much shorter and simpler because the encoding of the patient data (acquired via a disposable item) ensues with an individual key that is allocated only to this one disposable item, i.e. by dispensing with the use of a key with which all data are to be transmitted, so that the application is much simpler and less expensive. Given 128 bit keys, the keys in many instances in conventional systems are considerably longer than the actual information to be encoded.
Via the disposable-ID and the accompanying identifier of the patient station, i.e. the identifier for the attending physician, clinic or such, the information can be securely sent back to the patient station, where a decoding is possible in turn using the individual keys (of the disposable items) available there. Therefore, a very secure data transmittal is achieved without, complicated keys and without the necessity of using a secured data line.
The evaluation-reception station can be connected in an embodiment of the invention to the disposable-ID storage of the disposable item manufacturer via a secure data line, which makes only one or a few secure data lines from the one or the few evaluation-reception stations necessary. In contrast thereto, there are thousands of patient stations, from which secure data lines to the evaluation stations are, as a practical matter, not realizable.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the reception station is linked to a central patient data bank and/or to an expert system for evaluating the data on the basis of the stored technical knowledge for issuing an individual diagnosis.
The inventive tele-evaluation system also enables linking the reception station to an accounting computer that individually calculates the fee for the service rendered on the basis of the disposable-ID and the identifier of the patient station.
Moreover, the inventive tele-evaluation system also allows the implementation of a security system wherein the reception station is provided with a storage-blocking step that blocks information from a one-time-use disposable item for which the ID has already been logged in once before in a data input and/or issues a notice to a surveillance site. In this manner, disposable items intended and designed only for a one-time use cannot be re-used by the patient or physician in an unallowable fashion endangering the patient and the accuracy of the data ascertained.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the reception station, upon querying the individual key, simultaneously receives information concerning the calibration factors of disposable measurement devices and/or efficacy factors and/or the manufacturing data of medicines. Thus, for example, a complicated equalization of measurement chips with different calibration factors is not required at the manufacturer of the disposable item, but rather it suffices that the calibration curves are stored at the manufacturer and are allocated to the individual disposable item so that they are transmitted upon querying the individual key and can be correspondingly considered during the evaluation.
In another embodiment of the invention, the reception station is a neutral, manufacturer-independent health center that uses a disposable item to forward the patient data concerning success, compatibility, side effects or such of a treatment to the patient station, as well as anonymously to the disposable item manufacturer. This enables the acquisition of reliable findings concerning the effect of methods and medicine prescriptions with simultaneous assurance of the necessary anonymity of the patients.
An example of a disposable item, i.e. a one-time use item that is suitable for an inventive tele-evaluation system, is a diagnostic bio-chip, e.g. a sensor chip, that can acquire and evaluate a number of blood factors by analyzing blood taken from a patient.
Another example is medicine and/or its individual packaging, for example, by encoding each tablet individually or using an individual code for the packaging (bottle, tube, packet, etc.) a verification can take place whether it is the correct tablet, whether the correct number have been taken, etc. Also, specimen-taking utensils for blood, urine, breath, i.e. items referred to as hygiene items, can represent disposable items (that can be more readily evaluated with the aid of the inventive tele-evaluation system). These include, inter alia, measurement electrodes, diagnosis measurement strips, hygiene overlays (examination table, paper, gloves, etc.) for measurement and training devices as well as lists or simulators, using transaction numbers and key codes.
Examples for the introduction and readout of encoding data for placing the disposable-ID on the respective disposable item are
optically visible patterns, such as alphanumerics or symbols, that are legible by humans and can be transcribed, e.g. via a keyboard,
electric contact patterns that can be electrically picked up,
chips that can be read out,
a bar code that can be optically decoded (possibly including color) with a pen, scanner or image processor as well as high-frequency resonators that can be read out radio transmission,
magnetic strips that can be read out with customary card readers biochemical, electrical or fluorescent markers that can be optically read out, etc.